Vidas-Guscic Nicholas, Jonckers Elisabeth, Van Audekerke Johan, Orije Jasmien, Hamaide Julie, Majumdar Gaurav, Henry Laurence, Hausberger Martine, Verhoye Marleen, Van der Linden Annemie
Bio-Imaging Lab, Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Antwerp, Belgium.
µNEURO Research Centre of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2024 Sep 17;18:1418577. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1418577. eCollection 2024.
The present study aims to investigate whether begging calls elicit specific auditory responses in non-parenting birds, whether these responses are influenced by the hormonal status of the bird, and whether they reflect biparental care for offspring in the European starling (). An fMRI experiment was conducted to expose non-parenting male and female European starlings to recordings of conspecific nestling begging calls during both artificially induced breeding and non-breeding seasons. This response was compared with their reaction to conspecific individual warbling song motifs and artificial pure tones, serving as social species-specific and artificial control stimuli, respectively. Our findings reveal that begging calls evoke a response in non-parenting male and female starlings, with significantly higher responsiveness observed in the right Field L and the Caudomedial Nidopallium (NCM), regardless of season or sex. Moreover, a significant seasonal variation in auditory brain responses was elicited in both sexes exclusively by begging calls, not by the applied control stimuli, within a ventral midsagittal region of NCM. This heightened response to begging calls, even in non-parenting birds, in the right primary auditory system (Field L), and the photoperiod induced hormonal neuromodulation of auditory responses to offspring's begging calls in the secondary auditory system (NCM), bears resemblance to mammalian responses to hunger calls. This suggests a convergent evolution aimed at facilitating swift adult responses to such calls crucial for offspring survival.
本研究旨在调查乞食叫声是否会在非育雏鸟类中引发特定的听觉反应，这些反应是否受鸟类激素状态的影响，以及它们是否反映了欧洲椋鸟对后代的双亲照料。进行了一项功能磁共振成像实验，在人工诱导的繁殖季节和非繁殖季节，让非育雏的雄性和雌性欧洲椋鸟听同种雏鸟乞食叫声的录音。将这种反应与它们对同种个体啭鸣歌曲片段和人工纯音的反应进行比较，后两者分别作为特定物种的社会刺激和人工对照刺激。我们的研究结果表明，乞食叫声会在非育雏的雄性和雌性椋鸟中引发反应，无论季节或性别，在右侧听觉场L和内侧丘脑皮质（NCM）中观察到的反应性显著更高。此外，仅乞食叫声会在两性的NCM腹侧矢状区引发听觉脑反应的显著季节性变化，而应用的对照刺激则不会。即使在非育雏鸟类中，右侧初级听觉系统（听觉场L）对乞食叫声的反应增强，以及光周期诱导的次级听觉系统（NCM）对后代乞食叫声的听觉反应的激素神经调节，与哺乳动物对饥饿叫声的反应相似。这表明存在趋同进化，旨在促进成年个体对这类对后代生存至关重要的叫声迅速做出反应。
